Columns
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Updike’s High School Classmates Speak Out
The John Updike Society will hold the Inaugural John Updike Conference later this fall in Reading, Pennsylvania. Who’s on the guest list, you ask? According to Jacket Copy: “Acclaimed writer Ann Beattie and her husband, painter Lincoln Perry, will be…
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Nikko Available in San Francisco
Delfin Vigil’s fantastic true story Nikko: Concrete Commando, first published here on The Rumpus, was also beautifully self-published in the real world. If you’re in San Francisco, you can now buy Nikko at Aquarius Records, Dog Eared Books, or Needles…
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Director of Piracy (Not Really)
Publisher Macmillan posted a very interesting job listing yesterday that is a sign of the times: Digital Piracy Director. (via PW)
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How to Catch a Falling Knife
It is not easy to make interesting poems, yet How to Catch a Falling Knife is full of them. Part of the interest is apparent in the work the title performs: instead of shying from danger, these poems surprise by…
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Jose Saramago
Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago, author of Blindness and winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998, has died at the age of 87. (via @thebookslut)
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The Rumpus Book Club, Where I Live #1: Martha Burzynski
We sent a note to members of The Rumpus Book Club asking for a paragraph or two about where they live. ** I live in Brooklyn, about two blocks from the Promenade (which would be called an esplanade in Manhattan,…
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Morning Coffee
On the evolution of the World Cup ball. Did you know that Moscow’s metro map has been redesigned? Important stuff. Here’s your minimalist Japanese architecture for the day. Self replicating digital life.
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The Rumpus Review of Micmacs
A slapstick farce about one man’s revenge on a pair of rival arms dealers, Micmacs succeeds as comedy but attempts to ignore its own political content.
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The Rumpus Book Club: Blogging Citrus County #3
Join The Rumpus Book Club today to receive our second selection, Doug Dorst’s The Surf Guru. ** Welcome to the continuing Rumpus Book Club Blog, where a Rumpus contributor reads the book of the month and regularly blogs about his…
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A Dog Is Barking Everywhere
Foghorns show up in much of my writing, but that’s because I cultivate a disingenuously melancholy disposition that my actual life, full of hilarity and good-natured insults, completely belies. But today I discovered that “a distant barking dog” appears in…
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Utopia, What Are You Good For?
“But the question lingers: Apart from its questionable value as a marketing strategy, what is utopia good for?” Paul La Farge at Bookforum on the concept and uses of utopia, with special mention of San Francisco and Burning Man.
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I Have Written The Most Important Fictional Novel On Earth
I feel bad for most writers who want to get published or make money from their writing, including myself. But I never feel that bad — after all, writing is a privilege that not everybody can do, or even should…